Marcus Aurelius The Meditations: Marcus Cornelius Fronto

After analyzing the epistolary correspondence between young Marcus Aurelius and his teacher Marcus Cornelius Fronto and the Chapter One handout from adult Marcus Aurelius, it is evident that similarities exist between Marcus Aurelius and me in regards to the formation of our identity. In Marcus Aurelius', “ The Meditations,” this piece demonstrates his reflection on his life during the Second Sophistic period and its influence on his identity from birth to his time as the emperor of the Roman Empire. His meditation is an immense indicator of growth that arises from his life journey into becoming a man when compared to his younger self in the letters exchanged with his magister, Fronto. Reflecting on my own upbringing and its influence on the
person I am today, there are individuals, social constructions, and fields who I have to acknowledge and express my gratitude similar to Marcus Aurelius in his Second Sophistic-style autobiography.
A quote that really spoke to me and I found crucial as I pondered on my journey from Marcus Aurelius’ The Meditations is:
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that is beautiful, and of the bad that is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that is beautiful, and of the bad that is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature, and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away. (Aurelius, p.5)

Analyzing my identity formation through the lenses of Bourdieu’s and the Second Sophistic senses of identity, so many factors have contributed to my personal habitus and the ability for me to succeed in a liberal arts institution like Kalamazoo College. First and foremost, I’d have to thank Mother Earth for providing me with a once-in-a-lifetime experience to roam, wander, enjoy, and protect its beauty and grandness in order to have the opportunity to develop myself into an educated woman worthy of positively impacting the world. From my mother, I have learned perseverance, patience, respect, love, and the importance of becoming an educated woman of color like I am becoming now. Growing up I absorbed from my mother’s stories her desire to have had the financial opportunity to attend an institution of higher learning. She is living her dream through me and everything I do, I do it for us.
From my father, alike Marcus Aurelius sentiments toward his father, I learned about modesty and the importance of being able to sustain myself to a point where I wouldn’t have to depend on any male individual for my success. He taught me the importance of my life in spaces within the United States of which I am a symbol of resistance to the socially constructed ideologies that negatively affects the Mexican population I am a part of. Recognizing the fact that my basic concept of my own identity has been and is influenced by various individuals, socially constructed norms, and different locations highly stress Bourdieu’s concept of habitus within my own construction of identity. My family and the Growing up in a homogenous field back in my community in Los Angeles, I was not fully conscious of my identity as I am now during my transition to a new environment and period in my life here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. My family and social scenario back home taught me the basic knowledge on learning and working on myself to always strive in becoming an intellectual, loud, unapologetic women of color. Kalamazoo College became yet another field in which I have to constantly navigate its environment, cultural capital, and I am highly aware of the intersections of my multicultural identity. To my dearest professor, Dr. Haus, who since the first day of orientation became a magister figure in my life, has not only challenged my perceptions of the world but also influenced the ways in which I am constantly learning new ways in navigating a liberal arts education. Dr. Haus has helped me use aspects of my identity in a critical way for me to navigate this space towards the end goal of acquiring the ability to understand the nature of communities, organizations, and institutions and the system of meanings that form and inform them; and the interplay between individuals' lives and the societies in which they live. From challenging me in my writing style to what Marcus Aurelius states about Rusticus, “ to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book; nor hastily give my assent to those who talk overmuch; and I am indebted to him for being acquainted with the discourses of Epictetus, which he communicated to me out of his own collection.” (Aurelius, p.2) As a result of his guidance, I have learned new aspects of myself that I wasn’t aware of beforehand and I feel more empowered to navigate different spaces in efforts of fulfilling the goals of Kalamazoo College’s K-Plan for a liberal arts education to eventually become a positive activist of change to the world.
Relating my experience with education to Marcus Aurelius’s second-century, Second Sophistic education, it is evident that our different periods in time and responsibilities place a major difference in our educational outcomes.
Marcus Aurelius received intimate, homestay-style education from wise magisters during his life with the end goal of preparing a knowledgeable emperor worthy of ruling over the Roman Empire. Having received a public education my entire educational career until this point in my life, I am grateful for the individuals who perceived a lot of potential in my being and went out of their way to provide me guidance and orientation to become the best version of myself. Marcus Aurelius was surrounded by a variety of individuals who guided him and empowered him as he dealt with the immense social responsibilities that came with being expected to become the emperor of an immense empire like Rome. In terms of my own place within the K-Plan goal, as I almost come towards the end of my Sophomore year, I am confident in the intellectual position I find myself at this moment. Although I did experience some obstacles within my journey that really made me question the validity and effectiveness of my habitus, through the help of amazing individuals at Kalamazoo College I am at a stage in which I am employing the goals stated on the College website to the research projects I am a part of in campus and my overall educational experience. I am looking forward to putting in practice my habitus at this point in my life to my future Study Abroad or Study Away experience which would definitely convey my growth as similarly demonstrated through Marcus Aurelius’s correspondence between him and Fronto, and his Meditations at a later period in his
life.